Seasonal Childcare Workforce: 5 Proven Ways to Stop Alarming Turnover
Author: Alena Sarri, Managing Director, Aquatots Swim School
Australia’s seasonal childcare workforce operates like a gig economy that nobody wants to acknowledge. From swim schools to holiday programs, children’s services businesses cycle through casual staff at rates that rival ride-share platforms. Yet they work in a sector where trust and child safety should come first.
So why does this matter for freelancers and the businesses that depend on them?
The scale of the problem is staggering
The numbers tell a confronting story. In August 2025, Australia recorded 2.4 million casual employees nationwide. However, children’s services sit at the extreme end of that spectrum. Around 67.6% of early childhood education workers are part-time, and only 29.3% hold full-time positions. Meanwhile, the aquatics industry employs roughly 85,000 workers, with swim teachers making up the largest group at 33%.
Turnover compounds the issue. A national survey found that 97% of childcare centres lost educators in the past 12 months. Even more concerning, 60% of remaining educators planned to leave within three years. These figures mirror the seasonal childcare workforce patterns in swim schools. University students and casual instructors drift between venues the same way gig workers drift between platforms.
Platforms like QuickCare now let childcare centres post shifts and educators accept them on demand. The seasonal childcare workforce has, in effect, built its own version of Uber without anyone calling it that.
Seasonal childcare workforce turnover costs up to $20,000 per instructor
Most business owners underestimate the true cost of replacing a single swim instructor. Direct expenses alone run between $3,300 and $6,100 per hire. Certification courses cost around $449 for the base qualification, plus $315 for infant and preschool extensions. Then add Working With Children Checks ($87 to $157 depending on the state), annual CPR renewals, first aid training, and police checks. On top of that, employers cover recruitment advertising, in-house curriculum training, and four to eight weeks of supervised buddy teaching.
Once you factor in lost productivity, client disruption, knowledge loss about individual children’s abilities, and workload increases for remaining staff, the total replacement cost reaches $8,000 to $20,000 per instructor. For a swim school running 20 instructors with 30% annual turnover, that translates to $48,000 to $120,000 every year in costs that never appear on a standard P&L.
The broader care sector faces similar financial pressure. Care workers earn 33% less than the average Australian worker, despite requiring formal qualifications that cost $1,199 to $2,500 through private training providers. This pay gap accelerates the seasonal childcare workforce exodus even further.
Child safety suffers when your workforce operates like a gig marketplace
Here is where the seasonal childcare workforce problem moves beyond balance sheets and into genuine risk. High-turnover casual workforces reduce institutional accountability. Workers circulating across dozens of venues make it harder to detect patterns of concern. Background check systems were not designed for people who move this fast.
In the US, a federal review found that 11 states did not run interstate background checks for childcare workers at all. In New Zealand, private swim schools face no legal mandate to conduct children’s worker safety checks. Even in Australia, processing times for Working With Children Checks stretch to 12 weeks in Victoria, which creates pressure to start workers before verification completes.
Research on continuity of care reinforces why this matters for children’s development. Studies show that consistent caregiver relationships over 12 months or more build secure attachments and reduce behavioural problems. In swim schools specifically, frequent instructor changes increase student dropout rates by 10 to 20%. The seasonal childcare workforce model, by design, works against the very stability that children need.
5 strategies that break the seasonal cycle
Operators who retain their seasonal childcare workforce share common approaches. A 2023 Victoria University study of 42 swim instructors identified the key retention levers, and the most effective models combine several of these strategies together.
Year-round employment structures eliminate the seasonal layoff cycle entirely. US franchise models like Goldfish Swim School run heated indoor facilities across 100+ locations, keeping staff employed through every season. In the UK, Turner Swim offers payslips, pensions, and fully paid in-house training to build long-term commitment.
Career pathway programs move instructors from poolside teaching into specialisations and then into management or training roles. Cross-training across positions (instructor to lifeguard to front desk) creates flexibility that sustains year-round hours even when lesson demand dips.
Employer-funded certification removes the $1,100+ barrier to entry. When businesses invest in getting people qualified, it creates reciprocal loyalty that casual hiring simply cannot match.
Reverse mentoring programs pair experienced instructors with newer staff. This builds knowledge transfer and team cohesion, two things the seasonal childcare workforce desperately lacks.
Structural pay reform delivers measurable results. Australia’s $3.6 billion government wage subsidy for childcare workers produced a 15% pay increase over two years from December 2024. Educator numbers rose 6% within 12 months, and vacancy rates dropped 14%. Research suggests a 25% pay increase could convince 90% of educators to stay.
What this means for the freelancer economy
The seasonal childcare workforce sits at the intersection of two major trends: the growth of freelance and contract work across all industries and the increasing demand for qualified children’s services professionals. More workers in this space now operate as independent contractors or casual employees bouncing between multiple venues. They need better tools for managing payments, invoicing, and cross-border compliance.
The operators who solve the retention puzzle will build genuine competitive advantage. Because in a sector where every parent’s first question is “who is teaching my child?”, workforce stability is not a nice-to-have. It is the product.
Alena Sarri writes about workforce trends in children’s services and education. Follow Remotify for more insights on the freelancer economy.
